If present in sufficient amount, ceramides may
be directly purified by a two step procedure including a separation by column
chromatography combined with TLC.
The separation on a silica gel column, as
previously described, enables the elution with acetone/methanol of a fraction containing all the
glycolipids and the ceramides. Another procedure was previously described where ceramides
are purified as a fraction of neutral lipids.
After evaporation of the solvent, the lipid extract may be chromatographed on a silica gel
plate to isolate a ceramide spot.

Separation by TLC of free
ceramides

Dissolve the lipid extract in a small volume of
chloroform/methanol 2/1 (v/v).
Separate on normal silica gel plates with:
- a first migration with chloroform/methanol/acetic acid, 190/9/1 (v/v) as mobile phase
- a second migration with diethyl ether/acetic acid, 100/1 (v/v) as mobile phase
Spots are localized with the help of commercial standards after primuline spray and eluted
by washing the scraped silica gel two times with chloroform/methanol (2/1).

Ceramides either found in free form in cellular extracts or sampled after preparation from
more complex lipids are easily studied after derivatization to enable their further
quantification or analysis.

Immediately after lipid extraction from tissues or cells, ceramides are directly derivatized with naproxen as for diacylglycerols to
give fluorescent (and UV absorbing) compounds. After TLC, the spot corresponding to
ceramides is eluted and the extract is thus available for quantification
or molecular species analysis.

2 -Preparation of ceramides from sphingomyelin.

A- Ceramides are prepared from sphingomyelin by
hydrolysis using phospholipase C from C. welchii as for the production of DAG from other phospholipids and derivatized with
naproxen as previously described.

B- It must be recalled that ceramide-containing sphingomyelin may be prepared directly
from a crude lipid extract by mild saponification if other compounds are of no interest.

Mild saponification procedure:

The dried lipids are warmed 30 min at 45°C
with an adapted volume of methanol/20 N NaOH in water (19/1, v/v). After cooling, add 2
volumes chloroform and 1 volume water. Vortex and centrifuge at low speed. The lower phase
is collected and evaporated for the study of ceramide-containing lipids. If the sample
contains relatively moderate amounts of glycolipids, the phospholipase hydrolysis can be
run directly on the saponified extract. For more precise works, it is convenient to
isolate first sphingomyelin from the other sphingolipids by column chromatography.

A less complex saponification procedure can be used
when fatty acids do not interfere with subsequent analyses. The methylamine
hydrolysis, processed according to the first step of the procedure
previously described for the deacylation of polyphosphoinositides (hydrolysis
followed by evaporation of the reaction medium), prevents any liquid/liquid
partition and yields intact sphingolipids.

A modified procedure may be also used: dissolve and warm the dry lipid extract
with 0.5 ml of 25% monomethylamine in ethanol at 50°C for 30 min. The
alkali-resistant extract is dried under nitrogen and suspended in an appropriate
volume of chloroform/methanol (2/1, v/v).

One of the most efficient purification method for all sphingolipids has been
proposed for shotgun lipidomics analyses (Jiang
X et al., Anal Biochem 2007, 371, 135). Briefly,
Briefly, a small
portion of each individual lipid extract was evaporated under a stream of nitrogen.
A small volume of ice-cooled LiOMe solution(1M,
50 ml) in
methanol was added to the test tube at 0°C. The
reaction mixture was vortexed for 15 s, placed in an ice
bath for 1 h, and quenched with 2 ml of 0.4% acetic acid solution.
The aqueous phase was washed with hexane (2 ml, 3 times).The lipids in the aqueous phase were extracted by the
modified Bligh and Dyer. The combined
chloroform phase was dried under a stream of nitrogen.
The residue was reextracted against a 10 mM aqueous LiCl solution and each
extract was dissolved in 100 ml
of CHCl3/MeOH (1/1, v/v).

3
- Preparation
of ceramides from glycosphingolipids.

Ceramides are less easily prepared from
glycosphingolipids than from sphingomyelin. Compounds containing dihydroxy bases (sphingosine, dihydrosphingosine,
sphingadienine) can be converted to ceramides by the procedure proposed by Carter et al (J
Lipid Res 1961, 2, 227). This process consists in an opening of the glycosidic ring with
periodate and the resulting product is chemically reduced before its hydrolysis under mild
acidic conditions. For trihydroxy base-containing sphingolipids present in vegetals, only
enzymatic hydrolysis (b-glucosidase) can be performed but without completion of the
reaction (Gatt, Methods in Enzymol 1969, 14, 152).

The quantities are given for the preparation of
ceramides from 1g crude glycosphingolipids but they can be easily adapted for any amount
of lipids.

Step 1- Lipids (1 g) are dissolved in 7 ml chloroform and 28 ml ethanol are added.
After dissolution, add under agitation 15 ml of HIO4 solution and keep the
mixture 24 h in the dark. Then, the lipids are extracted by adding 15 ml chloroform and 5
ml water under agitation. After centrifugation and a washing of the lower phase with 5 ml
water, the chloroform phase is evaporated.